On May 19, the birthday of the late Malcolm X, join the GETTING WORD COLLECTIVE for a virtual celebration of the Black Literary Arts community, highlighting the work of five premiere literary arts organizations that are helmed by Black women:
- The Hurston/Wright Foundation,
- Cave Canem,
- Furious Flower Poetry Center,
- Obsidian Literature & Arts of the African Diaspora and
- The Watering Hole
Formed in 2021, the group presents a rallying call each year to bring awareness to the need to support Black literary organizations that support Black writers. With the goal of raising awareness and raising money for each organization to share, the overarching message is to #FundBlackLiterature by supporting Black institutions that serve the literary community.
A virtual event, this celebration centers the importance of Black literature in today’s social climate of book banning and political efforts to defund and dismantle multicultural educational advances. This celebration is a call to action to #SupportBlackWriters by buying books by Black authors and supporting the Getting Word summer fundraiser that runs from Juneteenth (June 19th) to July 4th.
The Getting Word Collective is at the forefront of leading the charge of creating, facilitating and sustaining a thriving Black literary community. On this day, Malcolm X’s birthday, we channel his revolutionary energy in calling for you today to #FundBlackLiterature.
This celebration features appearances or performances by Duriel Harris, Yolanda J. Franklin, Cornelius Eady, Toi Dericotte, Mars. Marshall, Khadijah Ali-Coleman and more.